Has social media now devolved back to the same tone as Twitter X? Outrage, memes, extremism. Thinking more about this post from Paul Robert Lloyd last week and whether Micro.blog needs a setting if someone wants to keep blogging but get a temporary break from the social web. It’s all intertwined.

@manton despite the federated nature, Mastodon was really built to be a clone of Twitter. So it makes sense.

I don’t think it needs to change, most people don’t mind that experience. But for people who care, it would be nice to have an activitypub compatible platform that thinks differently.

@manton I think an option to set posts to some sort of “non-timeline, semi-private” would be good.

I don’t think there’s been any kind of devolution. Rather, perhaps, we’re living in incredibly difficult times and on the edge of many serious crises. There are very respectable people, leaders, scientests that are loudly sounding the alarms about our near future ability to survive on the planet. You know what I mean? Is it any wonder that the tone of any kind of human exchange might be stressed? That’s an extreme reality. I know you like to curate the micro.blog towards a more pleasant experience which I’ve found frustating. That’s okay because I can and do turn to Mastodon.

But I suppose my point is that this is hard. The real world right now is tumultous. It’s painful. It’s dangerous and cruel. If our hope is that blogs are a place to share ourselves and our lives it is inevitable that the stress of our times will show. That’s us right now. Perhaps the best that we can do is make a real effort to talk it through. It wont’t be easy. There will be hurt feelings and uncomfortable sharing. But that’s what we can expect if we’re being honest.

@Denny Yeah, 2024 was always going to be especially difficult. And I think in the US, the closer the election looms, the more on edge everyone is going to be.

@manton I don’t think we get to blame the tools in this case. There will always be people who respond based on how they intuit someone else’s words. Humans aren’t logic machines, and I think we need to look in the mirror and accept that.

@manton all the best wishes. You’re building great features for the platform users. If some people want to be so ideological, there’s nothing to be done, I suppose.

@jeromechoo Yep, there should be a variety of platforms with different approaches.

@manton, can we blog without sending our posts to the social web? People who can deal with feeling uncomfortable can still subscribe and read my blog or better still, wait for the weekend to get my newsletter and feel outrage on a delay. I mean, people are always free to unfollow, mute, or block quietly without letting us know about it unless they are doing so also to make a point.

@pratik we can definitely, I have blogs hosted here that don’t get published to micro.blog/pcora since I removed it as source.

@pcora It’s a all-or-nothing solution as I mentioned to @eurobubba yesterday. Also, I don’t know if it may have any unintended consequences on other aspects if I do a ‘delete feed’ @manton

@manton I think a set of tools to let you decide where/whether to syndicate via Activity pub/Federated stuff, like Pratik has asked for, is a solid idea and that it would also be a nice feature to be able to turn off seeing the non-M.b accounts you’ve followed in your timeline so you can add them back when you’re ready without having to remember each individual one.

@manton I feel like if you need a break from the timeline, posting with Ulysses, iAWriter, or any of the other great options out there is the way to go, as opposed to posting from the Micro.blog app/website itself. I’ve seen more than enough talk on here about digital detoxes to know it’s a practice folks here know how to get into. I agree plenty of that will be necessary for some.

@pratik Yes, removing the feed from Edit Sources in Micro.blog will essentially unplug from the social web. The limitation right now is that it also disconnects your blog from the Micro.blog timeline.

@manton I’m in a situation where I don’t mind sharing to Mastodon but want to disconnect from the Micro.blog timeline. Currently, I’ve enabled the Mastodon and Pixelfed crossposting with the main feed. I can move it to Echofeed. So perhaps that’s a solution. However, will removing the feed from Edit Sources in Micro.blog have any other repurcussions? E.g., the newsletter, etc.

@pratik No, the newsletter is its own thing and pulls directly from your blog.

@manton Thanks. I’ll give this a whirl.

Ideally, I don’t want it to be permanent, but I just wish I could turn it on and off when writing a post. Currently, I have set up Echofeed to post to Bluesky if I include ‘Bluesky’ as one of my categories. Either this or the on/off toggle for built-in cross-posting services would be great.

@pratik this is a bit of a weird state that I feel sad about. The MB community is easily the one I’d be least concerned about replying to a blog post.

@jsonbecker It makes me sad, too, but, to put it subtly, perhaps the difference in concern is due to the difference between you and me are.

@manton I feel like you’ve also entered into a space as “the creator & founder” of the thing we all attach our emotions, hopes, and thoughts to. And while it’s not as big a thing as Twitter / Musk, your thoughts do still put a flag in the Micro.blog sand larger than others here.

@manton btw I firmly believe that you should be allowed to share opinions and thoughts on anything and everything and that can be separate from what happens on Micro.blog. But if I write about how amazing AI is and how it needs to be in all things, I’ll get almost no response or outrage or cancels.

@pratik @jsonbecker I’ll say it:

Jason, maybe one day you’ll get lynched on Micro.blog and will feel differently.

@SimonWoods I wouldn’t use the word ‘lynched’

@SimonWoods @pratik this is the social place where someone is least likely to read something I’ve written without having very explicitly opted in and having read quite a bit of what I’ve written. Every other system I’ve ever attached to this makes it substantially easier to be piled on and substantially easier to be taken out of context. Even Manton’s own post that this thread somewhat started with was slammed far more on Mastodon than on Micro.blog.

I guess my feeling is that if a place where finding me is just barely less difficult than stumbling across my blog became a problem, at that stage, I’d be well past sharing things socially (and possibly publicly at all).

A true mob on like that has been exceptionally rare here. I’ve observed maybe 2 or 3, whereas I see them daily “elsewhere”.

@manton I can’t even read Bluesky anymore. There’s no place left anymore where everyone isn’t upset about everything anymore. Only place I find positivity anymore is YouTube. Even here on mb I find the same vitriol, but still love your work so want to support. C

@pratik gotcha ya! It would be interesting to have more granularity into it. But then, I am not sure if it does not come to a point that there is so much complexity to the product. Dunno. Btw, I rather see @manton adding URL control to blogs first. :prettyplease:

@pcora I was actually just thinking about URL editing yesterday! Yes, this is embarrassing that we haven’t added it yet.

@manton oh yay!! Im really looking forward to this!

@pcora @manton Well, I just want enough granularity that doesn’t foist the community on everyone who has a Micro.blog blog. And what I am expecting is not any more complex than currently offered cross-posting options.

Don’t get me wrong, the community is great and probably better than what’s out there but it’s not for everyone for every time and I think we deserve that choice. Just as I should have the choice to not share all my personal thoughts on LinkedIn, I want the choice to NOT share some thoughts with the Micro.blog community. It will be on my blog so you can always subscribe to my feed directly (or to my once-a-week newsletter if you want a more relaxed pace). Right now, to use Micro.blog’s excellent cross-posting features, you MUST share on the Micro.blog timeline also but you can share on the Micro.blog timeline without sharing on say, Bluesky.

I’m not saying I want to quit sharing on the Micro.blog timeline but I would love a choice to opt out sometimes or for a brief period of time. Else I may have to do that writing elsewhere (Blot, Pika? Bear? Write.as?) and then it bifurcates my writing that I so painstakingly moved to Micro.blog’s hosting last year.

@pratik @pcora By the way, the reason it works this way is mostly technical. Posts are copied to Micro.blog’s timeline before they can be cross-posted out. Of course it’s just code and can be changed, but it’s a can of worms and would affect ActivityPub too.

@manton @pcora Ugh! Ok. Well, then, I guess you can’t do much about it. Unless there’s a private (behind-the-scenes) timeline for those who choose it.

@pratik Something like that could be possible, essentially hiding the posts from your followers’ timelines. Not exactly the same thing but maybe close enough.

@manton Will that allow for selecting certain posts for the public (for the followers) timeline? I’m hoping the UI would be similar to other cross-posting sites (you can toggle on/off at the post level) and not entirely remove it from the Micro.blog timeline.

@pratik I’d like to get your newsletter if that’s the way to read the things that aren’t going to be on the MC timeline. A two minute search of your blog did not turn up the method to sign up for the newsletter, however. Can you add me to your subscriber list or send me a link to do it myself?

@amerpie Here you go. I had de-emphasized the newsletter because not many people had subscribed anyway. Anyway, I’ve not yet decided on opting out of the Micro.blog timeline but I’m laying the groundwork to see if it’s doable; at least as an experiment.

@pratik Well, I shouldn’t speculate more because I’m not even sure we are going to work on this. If it happens it’s probably a ways off.